It is well known that many skiers enjoy high speeds and jumping motions while traveling down the slope. High speeds refer to the greater and greater velocities which skiers attempt in navigating the slope successfully (and sometimes unsuccessfully). The jumping motions, on the other hand, include movements which loft the skier into the air. Generally, the greater the skier's speed, the higher the skier's loft into the air.
The interest in high speed skiing is apparent simply by observing the velocity of skiers descending the mountain. The interest in the loft motion is less apparent; although it is known that certain enthusiastic skiers regularly exclaim "let's catch some air" and other assorted remarks when referring to the amount and altitude of the lofting motion.
The sensations of speed and jumping are also readily achieved in other sporting activities, such as in mountain biking. Many mountain bikers, like the aforementioned skiers, also crave greater speeds and "air" time.
However, persons in such sporting activities typically only have a qualitative sense as to speed and loft or "air" time. For example, a typical snowboarding person might regularly exclaim after a jump that she "caught" some "big sky," "big air" or "phat air" without ever quantitatively knowing how much time really elapsed in the air.
There are also other factors that persons sometimes assess qualitatively. For example, suppose a snowboarder goes down a double-diamond ski slope while a friend goes down a green, easy slope. When they both reach the bottom, the double-diamond snowboarder will have expended more energy than the other, generally, and will have worked up a sweat; while the green snowboarder will have had a relatively inactive ride down the slope. Currently, they cannot quantitatively compare how rough their journeys were relative to one another.
It is, accordingly, an object of the invention to provide apparatus and methods for determining the "air" time of participants in sporting activities such as skiing and mountain biking.
It is another object of the invention to provide apparatus and methods for determining the speed of participants in sporting activities such as skiing and mountain biking.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide improvements to sporting devices which are ridden by sporting participants, and which provide a determination of speed and/or loft time of the device.
Still another object of the invention is to provide apparatus and methods for determining the amount of "power" or energy absorbed by a person during sporting activities.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent in the description which follows.